Current Actions and Policy Alerts

Want to get involved?

We with the Collaborative are always looking for community-based organizations, advocates, concerned residents and technical assistance providers that are working hard for diesel-free communities, particularly in those low-income and communities of color that are already overburdened. If you’d like to get involved in the DDDC’s work, please contact us.

Freight Transportation Activities

Since land use and transportation decisions directly shapes freight transport in our communities, the Collaborative’s Freight Transportation Committee has made it a priority to address land use and transportation locally and regionally. The Freight Transportation Committee is planning a series of land use and transportation capacity building workshops in partnership with local groups. In addition, the Collaborative partnered with the Pacific Institute on a training-of-trainers for community leaders using Pacific Institute's freight transport justice curriculum, "Gearing Up for Action" (now available in Spanish). Concurrently, we are pushing various regional planning agencies to incorporate diesel pollution and health concerns into the development of a “Sustainable Community Strategy” that will drive Bay Area housing and transportation development for the next decade.

Anti-Idling Activities

In 2012, the Idling Committee developed an Anti-Idling Toolkit for Schools. The Toolkit will be used to educate and mobilize a school community, including students, teachers, parents, school bus and delivery vehicle drivers, and/or diesel vehicle drivers, to reduce idling at and around school sites. Currently, the toolkit is being designed for an online release on DDDC's website. In the coming months, the Steering Committee will conduct strategic planning to identify the next educational or policy foci related to the reduction of idling.

Policy Activities

In order to protect existing and new residents from the hazards of diesel air pollution, DDDC identifies key policy and planning processes to engage in that will reduce exposure to toxic air pollution in our communities and protect public health.

In 2015-2016, the Alameda County Transportation Commission (ACTC) developed an Alameda County Goods Movement Plan to outline a long-range strategy for how to transport freight efficiently, reliably and sustainably within, to, from and through Alameda County by roads, rail, air and water. One of the draft Plan’s five stated goals is to “reduce and mitigate impacts from goods movement operations to create a healthy and clean environment, and support improved quality of life for those communities most burdened by goods movement.” To help make the draft Plan as successful as possible in advancing this goal, the Diesel Collaborative commissioned a Health Impact Assessment (HIA) of the draft Alameda County Goods Movement Plan. The HIA aims to advance this goal of improving health and quality of life by outlining ways that future changes to the county’s freight system can be implemented to maximize benefits and minimize harms to health in impacted communities. The system of transporting raw materials and products from where they are made to where they are sold -- also known as goods movement or freight transport – benefits some communities more than others. As this HIA shows, communities next to freight hubs and corridors like freeways, designated truck routes, ports, and rail lines bear the brunt of diesel pollution and other negative impacts of Alameda County’s freight transport system. This HIA identifies the potential impacts of proposed changes to the county’s freight transport system as detailed in the draft Alameda County Goods Movement Plan. The HIA then outlines ways that the implementation of this draft Plan can better protect and improve the health of all communities, including those most impacted by the county’s freight transport system. The full HIA is now online. For more information on ACTC's plan, visit its website.

To learn more about DDDC's position on past policy issues, go to Past Action and Policy Alerts.